Very few NASCAR drivers and personalities retain their charm and influence over the racing community past their racing days. Championship-winning drivers land gigs with broadcasting roles or management with race teams, but these are only the fortunate ones. However, former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace has managed to strike a chord with the fans through his unique personality and entertaining content on social media.

Now, those of you who tune in to Coffee with Kenny might have seen the coffee mug he holds up high. It is as if the mug is the extension of the light-hearted content that Wallace puts out, and it’s become synonymous among his followers. Soon he was able to convert this feature into a sponsorship deal with a $7.21 billion fuel company, Sunoco. But how exactly did the 61-year-old driver engineer this deal? And what led to this idea in the first place?

Kenny Wallace made the most of his injured shoulder

Like most race car drivers, Wallace had his fair share of run-ins with injuries. He had two torn tendons in the shoulder with which he used to hold the mug. After consulting doctors and going through an MRI, he went through a rehab phase and worked on his shoulders. There was a possibility that he would need to undergo surgery, but Wallace wasn’t sold on the idea. The only way that he could avoid the surgery was by tucking his arm close to his body, and that is the reason behind the iconic coffee-holding position.

This unique style of holding the coffee mug was also caught by Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles. Like his fans, Boles also liked the way Wallace held the coffee mug, and this is what sparked the idea of adding a sponsor to his mug. “When the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway talked about me holding this coffee mug up, I went, ‘I think there’s a sponsor there, and then I had a lot of people walk up to me and say, you need to get a sponsor for your coffee cup.” He revealed this on his YouTube show.

Not all NASCAR fans are alike, and few of them even tried to throw shade at the veteran driver for his unique style of holding his mug. But Wallace isn’t fazed by them and has continued to entertain his audience and build some good relations. “Do you know I’ve never had anybody in person come up to me and go, Herman, why do you hold that coffee mug up? I see millions of people in person. They just say it in text or on social media.” He added.

Thanks to this incredible story, Kenny Wallace will be back on the racetrack this year. “Anyways, I want to thank Sunoco, Fred McConnell, and now Sunoco’s with coffee with Kenny. They’re sponsoring the dirt car; the design is done. I’m going to drive for Nick Hoffman at Volusia. We’re going to start racing January 30th through February 8th, and the car is going to look good.” In the following edition of the show, Wallace also talked about WWE comparing it with NSACAR in the context of changing patterns among the sports audience.

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NASCAR viewers will have to shell out cash to watch their favorite races

The mega $7.7 billion new TV deal for the first time will see Amazon Prime stream NASCAR Cup Series races. In total, there are two streaming partners, Prime Video and Warner Brothers (TNT), who share a total of 10 races between them. Not to forget, Prime Video will have the rights to stream practice and qualifying for almost all races in the first half of the season. Predominantly, NASCAR viewers were used to watching races on traditional TV, and a switch to streaming services has been a topic of debate among the fans.

Well, just like NASCAR, WWE had a similar viewership model, and they have made significant gains with their first mega event after switching to Netflix. The debut show pulled in 4.9 million views globally, and 2.6 million of those came from US households. This was a big jump when compared to the numbers from last year with the cable channel USA Network, which stood at 1.2 million average viewers.

Taking note of this shift and seeing NASCAR trying to follow this trend, Wallace said, “People are paying a lot of money to get on Netflix or Hulu or Warner Brothers. That’s where NASCAR is going, and that’s my point. There’s going to be a lot of streaming in NASCAR this year, and everybody’s like, I hate NASCAR. Well, the WWE put their first show on Netflix, and it got 4.9 million views. So I don’t think NASCAR is going the wrong way. I think they are going the right way.” Wallace explained.

With a major shift in viewership pattern, it will be interesting to see how NASCAR’s streaming debut turns out to be. The goal has been to lure in new race fans and viewers, which is why a switch to streaming services does make sense for NASCAR.